Stevens stirs it up

Tight end Craig Stevens was exhausted on Wednesday. He went through two practice sessions, and four altercations. All in a day’s work, I guess.

The usually mild-mannered Stevens was anything but on this day. He got into scraps with defensive end Dave Ball and linebacker Stanford Keglar during team drills. Later, he got into it on back-to-back plays with defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch.

Craig Stevens

“I was just going out there trying to play hard. That’s football,” Stevens explained. “It looks like everyone got a little shot at me today.”

Stevens promised he wasn’t instigating, and Coach Jeff Fisher had his back. Fisher said Stevens was blocking well and some of the defenders were getting frustrated. He also said Stevens is “having a great camp.”

“I think they were picking on me,” Stevens, a third-round pick last year, said with a slight grin. “The defense is a tight little family. I was just trying to play tough, that was it.”

No defenders seemed to be still ticked off after practice, although cornerback Cortland Finnegan, watching from the sideline, said it got him fired up.

Said linebacker Keith Bulluck: “Football is a physical sport so there’s going to be some confrontations. If there are no confrontations on your team you might have some things to worry about during the regular season because you have no fight. He was either holding or somebody had it out for him. But he’s out there competing, trying to earn a spot, so he is not going to let anyone push him around.”